Doesn't slavery, Jim Crow, and the building of the railroads already inform children that, hey the US doesn't have a perfect record on racial equality? The facts speak for themselves.

I don't know - I remember a friend of mine in history class who managed to take THIS tidbit of wisdom from the same class as me:

"The Indians were barbarians who deserved to be killed"

Which people does have a perfect record?

Slaves were bought from the coast of Africa, from groups which raided the interior or bought from other merchants who plied the trade of human misery. The institution was nothing new to Africa before the arrival of European ships. People who wrote in the period included a number of traders who wrote at length of the process whereby someone might find themselves enslaved.

Hell the traders on the coast must have danced for joy when the European market opened up to them.

The Mexica or "Aztecs" had similar institutions, as did most of the rest of the world, where there were cities, there were to be found institutions of human bondage. The native tribes of North America were anything but peaceful, warfare was not a European invention after all.

Part of the reason the Europeans were able to succeed was because of the tribes mutual animosities for one another. Did they "deserve" to be defeated and driven out? That is one of those ethical questions with little bearing on reality. The reality of the question is, was it pretty well inevitable. In that sense, I'd say yes.

Between technological changes, environmental change brought on by the importation of foreign species which made traditional life difficult for native peoples, political pressures forcing peoples abroad to leave their homes and governments to expand their territories, a conflict that pushed out the original inhabitants to make way for new ones was as likely to happen as a sunrise.

Its happened thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of times over the total length of the human species existence. North America was going to be no different. A regrettable event yes, but deserving of no more empathy now than I would give to the Spanish over the Roman incursions, or the French over the conquest of their Gaulic ancestors, or the...list goes on. Its the past, its interesting, its tragic, its the human story, and it will be repeated again. Boo hoo hoo. Its no worse than what the tribes in North America were already doing to each other, if the numbers of violent deaths are anything close to what the archeological/historical record suggests.

Robert, that is so totally non-PC. The fact that it is true is no defense...

No, no, no, no, NO! The Native Americans were all peaceful and lived perfectly in balance with Nature! I know! I saw Pocahontas!

No wonder students don't know history very well. We teach them that most of their families immigrated here in the early twentieth century. Yet, at the same time, we tell them that their ancestors went to Africa and enslaved Black people. hmm...

Recently finished a Master's program in Childhood Ed in NYC (read: I'm screwed) - anyway, not one but two state-mandated classes in the program consisted almost entirely of undisguised BS like this. We used different editions of the same textbook for both courses (taught by the same professor) which featured a forward and a contributed essay by Bill Ayres. For the final discussion in the first class, we were required to read "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" http://www.amazon.com/Black-Kids-Sitting-Together-Cafeteria/dp/0465083617
The book's central premise is that all white people are inherently racist.

Every single licensed teacher in New York City undergoes similar brainwashing.

@JDThompson: My sister-in-law has a Master's in early childhood ed, too- and she does really well. The secret is, you have to marry a doctor. (She's a stay-at-home.)

"...that color-blindness will not end racism..." Another way of stating this is "minorities will never succeed on a level playing field". Which is a tacit admission that whites are inherently superior. If this statement were actually true, it would remove the moral imperative from the issue: Us white guys are superior! Nature has decreed it so! So why should we worry about what the minorities think -- they're a bunch of losers!

This is the cross that the Left is bound and determined to nail itself to. They don't seem to realize that they are actually refuting MLK, and that their own words echo the position of the Klan. In their world, the whole issue reduces to raw political power struggle, and racial shaming is simply a tool to be used. I reject this, completely and totally. Minorities can succeed and get ahead in American, even on a playing field that may be tilted against them. We know this because a lot of people who are now lumped in the "white" group were once considered minorities: Catholics, Jews, Irish, Germans, Poles, Russians, half-breed Native Americans, etc. Within my lifetime, cruel Polish jokes were told openly and a Catholic President was feared by many. My own ancestors were Kentucky hillbillies, an ethnic group that it is still socially acceptable to demean. And, the eternal specter of Antisemitism has not only not been vanquished, but in some sectors, its influence is actually growing again.

So to say that blacks and Hispanics cannot succeed on a level playing field isn't just false. It's demeaning to those groups, for it suggests that they are inherently inferior. It's insulting to the people who have worked hard to tamp down racism and create the level playing field. And it's ignorant of American history. It's a lie that is designed to drive wedges between people and break up American cohesion. Which is exactly what the Left wants, because a disunited and feuding people are easier for a totalitarian government to dominate.

@JDThompson: My sister-in-law has a Master's in early childhood ed, too- and she does really well. The secret is, you have to marry a doctor. (She's a stay-at-home.)

Ha, thanks...the other option at this point is to get the hell out of NYC, which is the plan. Vote with my feet, if you will.

One thing I always like about western society is that we tend to have short term grudges and memories. What I mean is what I notice here in Korea and in the Middle East (Come on the Crusades where over 700 years ago). Here in Korea - many people have a bad hate on to the Japanese. I have little 8 year old saying Japan is evil. People protest and burn flags and cut off fingers as to protest some minor squabbles over text books and name of seas with Japan. Now I understand the history - Japan colonized Korea and abused it for about 50 years. But most of the people who lived thru that time are so few. It has been over 65 years since then (1945). Korea has blossomed into a pretty powerful country and rich. Yet in a recent survey of South Korean University students asked who is South Korea's enemy. Number one was Japan, two North Korea, and three the USA!

Now John what has this got to do with above. This grudge holding and placing blame on Japan hampers the society and causes possible troubles in the future. How will the country react if North Korea decides to invade. When more then half of the population does not thing the invaders are the enemy. Imagine what the country would be like if Japan and Korea teamed up - had a some free trade - they could rival China. In other ways this long term memory it can help the country ignore the troubles and distract the populace with a boogy man. It sounds like that many political correct groups in the west are trying to make and create a decoy. It just does not help. It will divide.

Make racism a thing of the past but do not keep bringing it up and using it as an excuse or a crutch.

Ya hold a grudge for awhile, keep an eye on trouble makers, prepare for possible future troubles, try and get and give apologies. But the amazing think is the west we eventually forgives and forget. Yet think this what would America look like if we still had a hate on to Japan and Germany. I bet a lot more nasty and poor world. Now bringing up old grudges and hurts against groups will just stir up resentments and will cause more rifts. Let time heal the wounds and people to forget (mostly).

This book basically promotes treating minorities like they are too stupid to understand the same things that us whities do. Because you know, minority brains are just sooooo much more sensitive... So, we should all just hold thier hands and tell them that they are special snowflakes all the time because the cruel hard white world will not let them succeed by sheer hard work and determination because they are stupid and (minority). We whities should just give them extra special treatment so that they don't have to, ya know, actually work for it.

I thought that sort of thinking would only breed race entitlement and laziness and welfare babies. Silly me...

Perhaps if school were more concered with education then social jutice we wouldnt be graduationg kids who dipolmas claim they understand geometry and trigonometry but cans seem to make change unless the cash register tells them what to do

"Here's a suggestion for teaching kids identity in schools: Teach them that they're American, and what the rights and responsibilities of that entail."

You got that exactly right Amy!!

Yet in a recent survey of South Korean University students asked who is South Korea's enemy. Number one was Japan, two North Korea, and three the USA!

Sad, considering how much US blood and treasure was expended to save South Korea from the North Korean / Chinese invasion.

And how much of that blood and treasure currently sit at the DMZ ready to help out should North Korea get feisty again.

And how many cars, phones, appliances, and other South Korean products are being purchased by Americans. Hyundai, Kia, Samsung, LG, and a few others would be nowhere near as profitable (nor as able to provide jobs to South Korean university graduates) as they are without the US market.

I don't believe there's a nationwide conspiracy to keep people down, but any time you have a socio or economic minority in any region, that group will naturally get the short end of the stick. That doesn't mean minorities need to be coddled, but you should recognize when mainstream society ignores groups of people.

"They don't seem to realize that they are actually refuting MLK, and that their own words echo the position of the Klan" Cousin Dave

"Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, 1963

"Affirmative action today, tomorrow, and forever" Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor of Detroit, 2006

"One drop of nigger blood makes a man a nigger" Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, circa 1911

"I'm black, and I'm her mother, and I believe in the one-drop theory" Hale Berry, 2011

Perhaps if school were more concered with education then social justice we wouldn't be graduationg kids whose dipolmas claim they understand geometry and trigonometry but can't seem to make change unless the cash register tells them what to do.

If, instead of trying to arbitrarily balance the social scales, our schools taught all the children the skills for the teaching of which we established the schools in the first place, the adults these children become could by their own efforts balance the scales themselves.

"The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race." - Booker T. Washington

"No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts." - Booker T. Washington

"No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward." - Booker T. Washington

And this one to show he had a sense of humor:

"We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." - Booker T. Washington

And graduating people who can spell properly now that I think about it

"Isn't school about teaching kids to read, write, understand history, government, literature, and science, and do math?"

There's no time for any of those things when Social Justice & White Privilege are in the curriculum:

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/269853/bad-case-national-amnesia-rich-lowry

"Only 35 percent of American fourth-graders know the purpose of the Declaration of Independence, according to the 2010 results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress...Only 20 % of fourth-graders, 17 % of eighth-graders, and 12 % of twelfth-graders were proficient in history. More than half of twelfth-graders were categorized as below basic"

Note that students actually get dumber as they move through the school system and get exposed to more & more brainwashing.

Again, the purpose of public education is to create compliant citizens. It isn't education, and we don't want people thinking for themselves.

I am laughing so hard right now I have tears streaming down my face.
Isn't it ironic that the same people who piss and moan about these sorts of things absolutely go into paroxysms of joy at the mere mention of evolution and the survival of the fittest? But of course, it is only when that survival is not at the expense of their tender, unable-to-survive-without-handouts-union behind.

I still maintain that until everyone doesn't give a flying, flaming rat's ass whether I am pink, black, purple with green polkadots and if I date my own sex or gender or maybe both, the world will continue to have flaming idiocy such as this book. Of course, Stupidity cannot be legislated, merely marginalized. So let's all ignore the bastiges.

How interesting that I should read this on the same day that an article was posted on Psych central about how anti-prejudicial message backfire and increase prejudice.

http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/07/08/do-anti-prejudice-messages-cause-prejudice/27553.html

I also had to read "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?"

That book was crazy. Evidently, all racism is my fault. Who's a thunk it?

We also had to research our country of origin and their cultural values, child-rearing, etc. I couldn't find a single ancestor that moved to the "new world" after the 1680's. I contended that I was more influenced by the cultural and child-rearing practiced of my "adopted country" than "my country of origin." I thought it ridiculous to research current child-rearing practices from those countries today and assume they have remained consistent. Naturally, our cultural differences are supposed to originate from these long ago lands.

I would think that humans adapt to their surrounding culture after more than 300 years, after all I have also been told that children's brains have adapted to new technology that has actually rewired their brains. Technology has been a part of our daily lives for a much shorter period of time.

In my education classes we had lessons devoted to cultural awareness/sensitivity. We were supposed to take students' culture/race into account when speaking to them because what is valued and respected in their culture might not coincide with "main stream culture" values.

Total B.S. This is no different than when one black student accuses another of "acting white" for doing well in school or speaking proper English.

Amy, you and I are the odd ones out. I told a friend when I was growing up that I loved her like a sister, and she got a horrified look on her face and told me to NEVER say that in front of her parents, because Blacks and Whites could never be SISTERS. I swear, I cried for a week thinking *I* had done something wrong.